1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a lump (group) management apparatus which manages information of operation conditions or maintenance information of a plurality of inspection/manufacturing apparatuses arranged in an inspection/production line of, e.g., a flat panel display (FPD) such as a liquid crystal display or an organic electroluminescence (EL) display or a semiconductor device such as a semiconductor wafer.
2. Description of the Related Art
For example, various kinds of inspection apparatuses and manufacturing apparatuses are arranged in an inspection/production line of a liquid crystal display. The inspection apparatuses include, e.g., a pattern inspection apparatus, a line width inspection apparatus, a macro inspection apparatus, a micro inspection apparatus, a defect review apparatus, a reflected light visual inspection apparatus, a transmitted light visual inspection apparatus, a micro result review apparatus and others apparatuses.
Further, the manufacturing apparatuses include, e.g., a sputtering apparatus, a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) apparatus, a physical vapor deposition (PVD) apparatus, a pulse laser deposition (PLD) apparatus, a baking apparatus, a resist application apparatus, an aligner apparatus, a chemical etching apparatus, a repair apparatus and others apparatuses. Each information of respective operation conditions (which will be referred to as a recipe hereinafter) is set in these inspection/manufacturing apparatuses.
With respect to each of these inspection/manufacturing apparatuses, there is carried out a maintenance management of operation states of a maintenance target for each apparatus, e.g., a lamp, a motor or a belt.
FIGS. 16 and 17 are views illustrating a method of setting a recipe with respect to each inspection apparatus in the prior art. In FIG. 16, four inspection apparatuses 1-1 to 1-4 which are of the same type are set in a semiconductor device production line. When newly setting or changing a recipe in this line, the same recipe 2 is created with respect to these inspection apparatuses 1-1 to 1-4.
However, when creating the same recipe 2 with respect to each of the inspection apparatuses 1-1 to 1-4, an operator must create the recipe 2 in accordance with each of the inspection apparatuses 1-1 to 1-4, go to the respective inspection apparatuses 1-1 to 1-4 and perform setting there. Therefore, there is required an operation quantity of setting the recipe corresponding to the number of the inspection apparatuses 1-1 to 1-4 arranged in the line.
On the other hand, in FIG. 17, respective computers in the inspection apparatuses 1-1 to 1-4 are connected with each other through a local area network (LAN). If such a structure is adopted, for example, creation of a recipe 2 relative to the inspection apparatus 1-1 is carried out once, and then a file of this recipe 2 can be copied to a folder or the like formed in each computer of the other inspection apparatuses 1-2 to 1-4. As a result, the same recipe can be set in the respective inspection apparatuses 1-1 to 1-4.
However, in setting of the recipe shown in FIG. 16, the number of operations to create the recipe is large for an operator, which is troublesome. Furthermore, since the respective inspection apparatuses 1-1 to 1-4 are set at respective positions on the inspection line, the recipe 2 cannot be created unless an operator moves to installation positions of the inspection apparatuses 1-1 to 1-4. Moreover, even if a difference is produced in a content of the recipe 2 between the respective inspection apparatuses 1-1 to 1-4, an operator is hard to be aware of this fact.
On the other hand, in setting of the recipe shown in FIG. 17, since the file of the recipe 2 is copied to the respective inspection apparatuses 1-2 to 1-4, the operation can be somewhat simplified as compared with setting of the recipe shown in FIG. 17.
However, if a folder to which the file of the recipe 2 is copied is wrong, the recipe 2 cannot be validated in the inspection apparatuses 1-2 to 1-4. Additionally, if the recipe 2 of a given inspection apparatus 1-1 is rewritten and the rewritten content is forgotten to be reflected to the recipes 2 in the other inspection apparatuses 1-2 to 1-4, a difference is generated in operations between the respective inspection apparatuses 1-1 to 1-4.
FIG. 18 is a view illustrating a method of acquiring maintenance information with respect to each inspection/manufacturing apparatus in the prior art. As shown in FIG. 18, when four inspection/manufacturing apparatuses 3-1 to 3-4 are provided, respective inspection items 1a to 1d, 2a to 2d, 3a to 3d and 4a to 4d as maintenance targets are managed in accordance with these inspection/manufacturing apparatuses 3-1 to 3-4.
In the respective inspection/manufacturing apparatuses 3-1 to 3-4, four lamps are used, and life durations of the respective lamps are managed as the inspection items 1a to 1d, 2a to 2d, 3a to 3d and 4a to 4d. 
In the inspection apparatuses used in the production line, an operator Q periodically confirms an hour meter provided in accordance with each of the inspection/manufacturing apparatuses 3-1 to 3-4, and manages life durations of the lamps. It is to be noted that the hour meter measures a life duration of each lamp by using lighting time of the lamp for counting.
However, in the above-described maintenance management, the operator Q must occasionally go to installation positions of the respective inspection/manufacturing apparatuses 3-1 to 3-4 in order to confirm the hour meter of each of the inspection/manufacturing apparatuses 3-1 to 3-4. Further, the hour meters for the 16 lamps must be checked only for confirmation of the lamps in order to manage life durations, which is troublesome.